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MIANYANG, Sichuan: As he walks alone with a bandaged head and arm outside
Nanhe Stadium, a temporary center for quake survivors, Wang Qingzhou appears
fairly relaxed.
He looks like a different man from the one who managed to get
out of Beichuan two days ago, his native county where most of the buildings
collapsed and many people were killed in Monday's disaster.
Wang managed
to pull himself out of a collapsed four-story building, in which he lived on the
top floor, and where his younger sister remained buried.
"I was hit on the
head with a large brick and I needed 20 stitches," he told China
Daily.
"I couldn't take off my shirt when I first went to the clinic as
it was caked in blood."
Liu Jinhua sits with her 8-month-old baby
in their makeshift home at Mianzhu City Stadium, Deyang, Sichuan province. The
stadium is being used as a temporary shelter for thousands of quake survivors.
Huo Yan
The 34-year-old was chatting with his younger sister when the
quake hit. He ran to the washroom to hide.
"A few loud bangs, and
everything was gone I cried for help for half an hour, but no one was around,"
he said.
"My sister was crying for help, but I couldn't help her until I
get myself out of the debris," Wang said.
When he finally did get out,
Wang still was unable to save his sister because he was bleeding so
much.
"My wife is still somewhere in Beichuan. She's about five months
pregnant," he said with a blank look.
"And my parents are trapped on the
mountains on the outskirts of town."
But Wang's 10-year-old son survived
the quake and is now in Jiuzhou Stadium, another center for survivors in
Mianyang. Wang was transferred to Nanhe on Thursday.
"The food and water
supplies are okay, and I'm really impressed with the volunteers' work," he
said.
"The government has also helped a great deal."
Apart from
government-provided lunch boxes, many Mianyang residents have been sending
homemade porridge, vegetables, meat and steamed buns to the
survivors.
"The only thing is that I can't sleep. With so many people
around, the air and temperature here are an issue. It feels much better under
the trees," Wang said.
Ma Peisong, deputy director-general of the
stadium's rescue office, said Nanhe hosts more than 8,000 survivors, many of
them from Beichuan.
"A community has been formed, although more tents are
needed," he said.
That community comprises survivors, volunteers and
medical personnel. Survivors can also make free phone calls to friends and
family in two temporary phone booths.
"We are trying to offer food, water
and basic sanitation for all," Ma said.
"And we're working on medicine to
treat infections."
People like Zhang Lili, 19, one of the 2,000 local
volunteers in and around Nanhe, are trying to accomplish those goals.
"We
just want to make the survivors' life easier," he said.
Support workers
have also poured into the stadium from outside the city and province.
On
Friday morning, 87 people from Tangshan, Hebei province, the site of China's
worst earthquake to date, rushed to Nanhe after a day and night on the
road.
"We feel the pain of the quake victims here," one of the team's
drivers, who lost his father in the 1976 quake, said.
By Hu Yinan and Zhang Haizhou
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